Kai, The Informologist

Olympics Highlight: Usain Bolt from Jamaica at the 200-meter. Just unreal. Commentator at the 200m semis talked about his lack of humility. I believe he’s still got them, he’s just being a kid who is good at what he does.

Some decisions are made, some are shaky. Nonetheless, it is still a period of head banging hopeful, hopelessness. It’s month number 3 and I’m still trying to hunt down that first real full-time job package.

I have spent enough time with these flexible schedule thing. And I must say that it can be quite tiring thinking of all the things you want/have to do, and supervising/forcing yourself to do it when they are not done. I need to revitalize the spirit of a blogger – objective-oriented, self-motivated, determined, etc.

Anyways, the decision for now is to move in with Johnson by the end of the month. I hope to find something in that three-month period on temporary stay, otherwise graduate school in Spring? I’m not fully certain of this decision, I just knew I need to be somewhere and Seattle seems ideal and fitting.

I’m currently preparing a set of technical questions that may come up in interviews, somewhat preparing for GRE, watching too much Olympics and not yet touched the ASP.NET 2.0 book I got from Borders. Oh, and packing would just make it all the more fun.

And talking about the Olympics, it would be due to finish in about 3 days (Beijing time) on the 24th of August. By then the so-called winners of the Olympics may be announced. And if they do, I am currently quite confused by the way the nations are ranked.

According to the Official Olympics website, the Canadian Broadcasting Centre websites, the Official Australia Olympic Team website, Official Great Britain Olympics website and the Google result when you enter ‘Olympics’, all show China as the leader in the medal count ranked by the number of Gold medals she has received. Whereas, New York Times and NBC are ranking the United States as the leader in terms of the total medals received.

So who wins? And who makes the call? The largest nation in the world? Or the most powerful nation in the world?

It’s probably one of the few scenarios where losing a title is okay.

You lose some, you gain some. And Yang Wei has certainly gained more than some. He has proved his capabilities and consistency throughout the Men’s Gymnastics All-Around Event, winning his deserving gold after his third try.

On the same night, the Chinese Women’s Swimming team also pulled in a trio of medals, with the 4×200M relay being most impressive – ousting the Americans to just bronze. Proud achievement for a nation not known for its swimming capabilities.

In the 5 days of competition (excluding opening night), we have seen plays after plays that demonstrate the spirit of Olympics. I really enjoyed the game so far. The opening ceremony was lovely and certainly impressive, the games were played very cleanly without cheating and the facilities provided were top-notch.

CNN had however, followed its week-long ritual of criticizing the Beijing 2008 Olympics by publishing an article titled “China falls short on Olympic promises, critics say”. You can make the call on its intention and its validity.

I will be the first to admit that, after coming out of China, I have seen many things that changes my view of the nation. But all the politics aside, I know the genuine culture that represents China and the people that made up of China. To be honest, they are not bad people. They are, if compared to CNN, or Western nations in general, just different. I hope the spirit of Olympics will stand triumph against the indifference.

Besides, why all the detective work and criticism when you can’t stand up to the challenge from hardwork put up by other people?

Job Well done. (via Seattle Times)

After seeing my net worth dropped by 13%, I know I need to take some action in making a budget, a budget that is easy to setup on a periodic basis (monthly, quarterly), a budget that I can keep track of easily.

After consulting with a few spreadsheet I found online, I combined my usual monthly spending and a somewhat reformatted budget tracker from Foxway into my very own budget/spending tracker. And after spending awhile figuring out some arithmetic, its operational, although not entirely automatic yet.

You can download my budget tracker here.

And here’s what’s in there:

1. Budget Tracker: Enter/Change ‘Expense Type’ and ‘Budgeted’ amount for these items.
2. Monthly Spending: Feel free to enter the transactions for each account. You can edit the Drop-down from the Drop-down worksheet. Don’t worry about jotting them down, the expense will be copied onto the ‘Actual’ section of the Budget Tracker worksheet.
3. Drop-Down: These items are the ‘Expense Type’ and ‘Category’ on the prior two worksheets respectively. Any changes will be reflected onto the ‘Category’ in the Monthly Spending worksheet.
4. Read Me: More detailed guide and contact information can be found on this worksheet.

I’m currently using it already, but there’s got to be better ways in automating a lot of the calculation and copying. Please feel free to comment and throw out any suggestions you might have.

Highlight of Olympics 2008 Day #5

Okay, the Chinese Gymnastics team done it again. YES! You go girls. In the back of our mind, I’d want people from other team to falter so that we can win. But God told me to love the enemies, so I tried really hard cheering for the closest competitor, the United States.

I believe the U.S team did an awesome job in all of the previous three rotations, just like the Men’s teammates did the night before. It’s the last rotation where they falter (both Men and Women). I would be lying if I say I didn’t let out a little smile when Sacramone lost her footing along with many sympathy. For the Chinese, unlike the Men’s team who had routines so difficult, they should have won the Gold before the game, I believe the Chinese Women Gymnastics team won the Gold Medal because of their consistency. While the other teams fail to perform on par, the Chinese grab that opportunity and came in first.

Anyhow, it is a job well done.

The Men’s Team Final was a show. A show put up by the Chinese and the Americans alike. Justifiably, only a show that NBC allows us to watch base on the choice of camera angle from the producer, even though there were a few glimpse of Japan and Germany in the broadcast.

While the U.S high-five and bear hugged after each display, the Chinese led by Yang Wei were more subtle. Every now and then, they do leave the stage with a slight smile seemingly releasing that piled up pressure with the previous performance.

It has been 4 years since they last compete at the Olympics in Athens, where they faltered and slipped away from even the bronze medal, leaving them 5th. 4 tormenting years of thinking and training. Now it’s all paid off by a well-deserved gold-medal at our home-soil.

The Chinese athletes tried to stay cool even on the award stand, but a kiss on the medal by Zou Kai revealed their joy. Those are tears of joy, overwhelmed by the support from the fans, the relieved pressured and the great reward. Congratulations.

It’s Day #3 of Beijing 2008.

I’m still super-doper memorized by the capacity that China has demonstrated. The opening ceremony should just leave your speechless, breathless. It did to me at the very least. But more so are the details that are paid to each and every event (at least for the ones that I had seen). The facilities were prime and world-class, volunteers worked their heads off and the fans are just superb. It’s almost a perfect atmosphere, if not for the smogs that still shrouding the capital. I mean, having the President of the United States attending beach volleyball, basketball and swimming games are unheard off. I just love it.

Right now, I’m keeping track with NBC’s TV channel and online broadcast. With Microsoft’s Silverlight, accessibility is unbelievably easy (apart from the commercial before each video). I’m quite satisfied. Although, I would have love to see the Men’s 10m synchronize platform final.

Highlight: Men’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final

The U.S Swimming team did superbly tonight and has probably done the impossible. At 375m, everyone is saying impossible. That is, except Jason Lezak. Out of nowhere, he mustered energy and strength to overtake Alain Bernard of French who was at least half-body ahead of him, and won by just a fingertip, a mere 0.08 second. The French trashed-talked and were devastated in getting the silver.

I’m sure the victory meant a lot for many, including Adidas whose slogan has been ‘Impossible is Nothing’. It does have some truth in it now.

Michael Phelps’ sportsmanship after the win (he went over to shook the hands of the French after shouting and screaming like a crazy kid), impressive. Amaury Leveaux, one of the French swimmers’ response following the loss – not so impressive.

A fingertip did the victory… It is nothing.

There’s so much to be soaked in and I really hope there’s someone, somewhere who will compile it all and compress it into a chip, so that I can slot it into my ear or my nose or my mouth and relive the glorious 16 days. Yeap, someone better be quick in doing that, we only have about 12 days to go.

After a good brunch and a late service (been pushed back to 2pm), we headed to a friend’s wedding reception held in Indianapolis.

Farm, one of the new organic restaurants opened in Bloomington offered a variety of organic entree that should have a dish for everyone. To be warned however, is the pricing which should leave it as a once-in-a-month deal. Another thing I heard was that it has really good wine in the evening. It might just be a good hang-out spot in the future.

The wedding reception was tightly arranged since it wasn’t the real wedding which was held back in Maryland, but one that’s presented for the couple’s Indiana friends.

Program included a great deal of prayers from church’s elders, reverend and pastors. Music from friend (YY and Rachel played) and song dedication from Yoo-jin to Jay and later a duet from the pair. The song that Yoo-jin wrote was phenomenal – it should bring tears to everyone there. I hope I can sometime find the song/lyrics to share.

The food was great and so were the wedded couple. They had a lot of prayers and blessings from the church’s elder, reverend and pastors. The song that Yoo-jin had written for Jay was phenomenal, I will try to find the song/lyrics.

Talks of trip to Seattle at the end of the month. Hopefully it would be realized.

Yet another long day ended with “Friends”.

(from set: All in a Day’s Work)

I didn’t thought it was possible to do all 4 things in a day’s span, but I (we) did it! And it was fun.

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I never thought of myself as a MCP (male chauvinist pig). But time and time again, my pride stood in the way of softening situations. This time around, because of my stubbornness, my head is hurting, and sleep time was pushed way back.

I can see myself nodding off at the TOEFL tomorrow morning. Not a good though